Northwest Airlines Flight 1

Northwest Airlines Flight 1
	A Super Electra similar to the aircraft
Accident
Date	January 13, 1939
Summary	In-flight fire
Site	Custer County, Montana, U.S.; near Miles City ; 46°25′41″N 105°53′10″W / 46.42806°N 105.88611°W
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Lockheed 14H Super Electra
Operator	Northwest Airlines
Registration	NC17389
Flight origin	Minneapolis-Wold-Chamberlain Field (MSP/KMSP), Minnesota
1st stopover	Fargo-Hector Field (FAR/KFAR), North Dakota
2nd stopover	Bismarck Municipal Airport (BIS/KBIS), North Dakota
3rd stopover	Miles City Airport (MLS/KMLS), Montana
4th stopover	Billings Municipal Airport (BIL/KBIL), Montana
5th stopover	Butte Airport (BTM/KBTM), Montana
Last stopover	Felts Field (SFF/KSFF), Spokane, Washington
Destination	Boeing Field (BFI/KBFI) Seattle, Washington
Passengers	2
Crew	2
Fatalities	4
Survivors	0

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Location in the United States

Miles City

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Location in Montana

Northwest Airlines Flight 1, registration NC17389, was a Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra aircraft which crashed in eastern Montana on Friday, January 13, 1939, approximately 0.5 miles (0.80 km) southwest of the Miles City Airport. All four on board were killed in the accident.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

Flight

Flight 1 normally originated from Chicago to Seattle, with intermediate stops in Minneapolis; Fargo, North Dakota; Bismarck, North Dakota; Miles City, Montana; Billings, Montana; Butte, Montana; and Spokane, Washington. On the date of the accident, the flight actually began in Minneapolis and departed at 4:00 PM CST.^[1] After the two stops in North Dakota, the flight reached Miles City at 7:41 PM MST to refuel and take on cargo.^[1]

Accident

Departure from Miles City was delayed for over an hour due to weather conditions at Billings, but the aircraft eventually departed at 9:14 PM, with only two passengers on board.

Shortly after takeoff to the northwest (current runway 31), and at an altitude of five hundred feet (150 m) above ground level (AGL), the aircraft began a short turn to the left, lost altitude rapidly, and descended almost to the ground. It then pulled up into a sharp climb, reached about 500 feet AGL again, turned left again and descended rapidly into a ravine approximately half-mile southwest of the field.^[1]

Investigation

Investigators with the Department of Commerce's Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA), a predecessor organization to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), determined that an intense fire had developed in the cockpit shortly after the aircraft had departed the airport.^[1]

Although the state of the wreckage prevented investigators from definitively pinpointing the exact origin of the fire, an area of severe burning was found close to the cross-feed fuel valve located in the cockpit between the pilot and co-pilot. The Super Electra's cross-feed fuel system maintained a constant pressure of approximately 4.5 pounds per square inch (31 kPa), and there had been numerous reports of leakage in the vicinity of the valve. Lockheed designers had not provided any method by which any fuel that did leak from the valve could safely be drained. It was also difficult to maintain or inspect the valve due to its location.^[1]

Recommendation

The CAA recommended that the cross-feed fuel system be relocated to allow for easier maintenance and inspection and to reduce the possibility of a cockpit fire caused by fuel leakage. They also recommended that areas of leakage in the fuel line be modified so as to allow for adequate drainage.^[1]

Aftermath

This accident occurred one year and three days after Northwest's Flight 2 crashed, also in Montana, in the Bridger Mountains northeast of Bozeman. These accidents, as well as two others which befell Northwest Super Electras in 1938, called into question the airworthiness and commercial potential of the model. Northwest sold off its fleet of Electras soon after this accident.

This flight number was used for many years on the trans-Pacific Los Angeles–Tokyo–Ho Chi Minh City route. Northwest was acquired by Delta Air Lines in 2008, and a merger between the two airlines was finalized in 2010; the combined company retired the Northwest name and kept the Delta one.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Air Safety Board Report". Accident involving aircraft NC 17389 of Northwest Airlines, Inc., near Miles City, Montana, on January 13, 1939. Civil Aeronautics Authority. 1939.
^ "Four are carried to death in Montana air crash". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). Associated Press. January 14, 1939. p. 1.
^ "Northwest air liner crashes; four killed". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. January 14, 1939. p. 1.
^ "Four killed in airplane crash". Bend Bulletin. (Oregon). United Press. January 14, 1939. p. 3.
^ "Seek cause of plane's crash". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. January 15, 1939. p. 3.